Sociology Hazing and the violation of human rights

Human Rights Watch has released a report about the violation of human rights of the dedovshchina hazing system in the Russian army. From the press-release:

In the Russian army, older conscripts force new recruits to live in a year-long state of pointless servitude, punish them violently for any infractions of official or informal rules, and abuse them gratuitously - practices which clearly violate Russia’s military code of conduct. The officers’ corps and the Russian government have failed to take effective steps to stop these abuses.

The hazing system is fuelled by an endless cycle of vengeance, Lohman said. After suffering horrific abuses in their first year of service, second-year conscripts avenge themselves by inflicting the same outrages on the next generation of recruits, and so on.

Throughout their first year, new recruits live under the constant threat of violence for failing to comply with second year conscripts’ arbitrary demands, ranging from polishing their boots to procuring food and alcohol. First year recruits spend much of their time complying with these demands, as any failure to do so routinely results in violent beatings or other physical punishment, usually carried out after officers have left the base.

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I understand the advantages of an introduction period to increase the cohesion in the group, but this should always happen under strict supervision. This report what can happen if there is no control and the hazing is allowed to become more violent every year.

You know I have learned that it sometimes take an incident for things to change, no matter how long you preach it to the choir that changes are needed. Then when it happens, someone always rasies the question, why didnt we do anything to stop it, well it was asked, but no one cared til now. And of course, those who you preach it to, are the ones that dont pay the price, the blame goes elsewhere.

Good Example: Back some yrs ago, in the Marines, we would have to go to the Armory as a unit to do the unit cleaning/inspection on all of our weapons, from individual weapons to cew serve (.50 cal, M240 HMG, MK19, M249 SAW's, etc). Well the parking lot was across the street from the armory. But to cross the street there is no crosswalk, basically cross at own risk. It was mentioned time and time again to the upper echelon to address this to base commander that a crosswalk is needed, hence the street crossing is one of the main streets with heavy traffic. Our upper echelon did address it and nothing was done. One morning our unit shows up to the armory, moments later one of our Marines was clipped by a car, clipped hard enough that he broke his femur.

Next day CROSSWALK painted, signs erected, 2 weeks later flashing light installed. It took an accident to get it done and the our unit commander was blamed for not taking safety precautions for our troops. What a CROCK!

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